How to learn React

A couple days ago I was asked to give some ideas about how to dig into JavaScript and React to be able to join a team and deliver code as a frontend developer. I’ve collected my favorite resources, feel free to check them out.

Videos

A screencast tutorial is like sitting next to a teacher who explains what she/he is doing. If something is not clear it can be replayed or the playing speed can be adjusted.

The first React tutorial I saw is React for Beginners by Wes Bos. It was a good start and as I see Wes Bos keeps it up-to-date.

I’ve learnt a lot from Egghead.io videos. They have free resources from big names of the JavaScript community, for example

• The Beginner’s Guide to ReactJS by Kent C. Dodds
• Start Learning React by Joe Maddalone
• Getting Started with Redux by Dan Abramov

I also have an annual subscription here, they upload quality content frequently and for me this is absolutely worth its price.

I also recommend the JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts course on Udemy. This is a huge collection of videos about JavaScript in general. It helped me a lot to write code with more confidence.

Books

I’ve bought some React books, it feels good to have some on my e-book reader. Here are my favorites:

• React Design Patterns and Best Practices by Michele Bertoli
• SurviveJS - React by Juho Vepsäläinen
• Progressive Web Apps with React by Scott Domes
• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin

The Clean Code book is not about React but it is a mandatory book for all developers. I recommend the whole Robert C. Martin series.

Blogs

Medium is one of the best resources to follow technologies, influencers, developers. You can read announcements, case studies, tutorials, best practices, general and unique problems with solutions. This platform has a pretty good recommending engine, it will show you posts based on your “claps”.

• Official React Blog
• React, etc. Tech Stack
• Max Stoiber’s Blog
• Mark’s Dev Blog

YouTube channels

• Fun Fun Function - This is definitely my favorite YouTube channel. This guy has many high quality videos not just in React, but also in pure JavaScript.
• React Amsterdam - They upload the React Amsterdam conference talks here.
• LevelUpTuts
• Front End Center - This channel’s videos are about concepts, they are very useful if you want to write clean code.
• ReactCasts - Quick screencasts with nice narrations.
• Coding Tech - You can find all kinds of coding videos here, not just React - mostly conference talks.

GitHub

I follow some developers on GitHub to see their activities and recommendations (stars) on my GitHub feed.

• Dan Abramov
• Kent C. Dodds
• Peggy Rayzis
• James Baxley
• Mattias Petter Johansson
• Sashko Stubailo
• etc..

Do it

Of course, reading all the books and watching all the videos won’t transform anyone to a decent developer. It is mandatory to practice writing code so I encourage everyone to type (not just copy-paste, type!) the code and try them out. This is the best way to learn and strengthen the muscle memory.

Later, if you encounter a problem that you’d solved before in one of your practices or tutorials, it is much easier to find the solution in your developer machine’s folder than to find that video and that part of it where they solve that problem. And for sure it is even harder if you watched it weeks or months ago.